Now，the beloved can also be of any description.The most out-landish people can be the stimulus for love.A man may be a doddering great-grandfather and still love only a strange girl he saw in the streets of Cheehaw one afternoon two decades past.The preacher may love a fallen woman.The beloved may be treacherous，greasy-headed，and given to evil habits.Yes，and the lover may see this as clearly as anyone else—but that does not affect the evolution of his love one whit.A most mediocre person can be the object of a love which is wild，extravagant，and beautiful as the poison lilies in the swamp.A good man may be the stimulus for a love both violent and debased，or a jabbering madman may bring about in the soul of someone a tender and simple idyll.Therefore，the value and quality of any love is determined solely by the lover himself.
It is for this reason that most of us would rather love than be loved.Almost everyone wants to be the lover.And the curt truth is that，in a deep secret way，the state of being beloved is intolerable to many.The beloved fears and hates the lover，and with the best of reasons.For the lover is forever trying to strip bare his beloved.The lover craves any possible relation with the beloved，even if this experience can cause him only pain.
成熟的人不問過去，聰明的人不問現在，豁達的人不問未來。
參考翻譯（胡豔）
愛，首先是兩個人共有的體驗——但這並不意味著他們的經曆有何相似之處。愛分為兩種，即愛與被愛，施愛者和被愛者分屬於不同的世界。被愛者常常是作為一種刺激因素，能激起施愛者長久埋藏於心底的愛。對於施愛者，這一點他很清楚，因為他常能感受到靈魂深處愛的孤寂，這是一種全新、怪異的孤寂，正是這種認識，讓他痛苦萬分。因而，施愛者也隻有一種選擇，即盡量將愛深埋於心，重塑一個全新的內心世界——熱切而陌生。這裏所說的施愛者不一定指為買結婚鑽戒而努力存錢的小夥子，它囊括了男人、女人、孩子，或者說是全人類。